U.S. patent application No. 09/03,4773, which was filed on Mar. 2, 1998 and entitled xe2x80x9cAgent-Based On-line Information Retrieval and Viewing System,xe2x80x9d is incorporated hereby, in its entirety, by reference.
The present invention relates to a field of utilization of data packets which may include, e.g., audio, video, and other materials.
A system known as xe2x80x9cInternet radioxe2x80x9d has become more popular over the last few years. Internet radio allows a user to receive a streaming flow of audio content which the user listens to in real time. The way in which the user may store the content and the streaming flow depends on the Internet connection of the user. If the user has a bad connection, he or she will receive a low quality audio.
Another system is known as xe2x80x9cJukebox-onlyxe2x80x9d system. Jukebox provides pitfalls in areas of legality and consumer experience. First, the user cannot be provided with a xe2x80x9cmusic-on-demandxe2x80x9d system without paying full royalties to song and song recording copyrights holders. Moreover, such rights may be granted on a voluntary basis, i.e., record companies may refuse to grant such rights. With regards to the user experience, while it may be beneficial for the user to be able to purchase digital music and to play it in any preferable manner, this level of control may not always be possible. For some users, selecting which record to play is more burdensome than is preferable. Thus, there is a need for a system which would allow to eliminate these and other disadvantages of the prior art.
The present invention relates to a system and method for utilizing (e.g., playing) data packets, e.g., audio, music, video, advertisement, informative materials. A server arrangement provides the data packets to a user computing arrangement. A storage device of the user computing arrangement stores the data packets. The data packets are arranged in a predetermined order using the server arrangement and/or the user computing arrangement. The user computing arrangement executes a set of instructions to utilize the data packets in the predetermined order. A user of the user computing arrangement is prevented from modifying the predetermined order.